Orbitals
by Bounemr
Summary: It started out just wanting to make a new friend - or at least, that's what Alix thought. "Orbitals" follows her as she works through shenanigans and strife on her path to become closer to Marinette.
1. Chapter 1

Alix chewed on the end of her pen. The teacher was still lecturing, but Alix had long since stopped paying attention. Instead, she was casting her gaze to her left, past Mylène, to Marinette.

She hadn't given Marinette much attention, at first. Sure, she stood up to Chloé at the beginning of the year, but at the time, Alix didn't know how bad Chloé was, beyond reputation. It was the first year that Alix had even met either of them, so it didn't seem so remarkable.

And sure, things conspired to put Marinette in the spotlight, but Alix figured that was just part of who she was. Her engaging and friendly personality meant that she would naturally wind up at the center of attention more than Alix, who, she thought, was outgoing, but otherwise didn't quite fit the requirements to be "popular".

The first time Alix gave the girl a second thought was when Nathanaël was akumatized. At the time, she had hardly spoken with the boy, but was still concerned for him as her classmate. His crush on her also attracted her attention, of course. They weren't best friends at the time, but she respected him and could see that Marinette had a crush on Adrien. So, she paid Marinette special attention from then on, half in a "I need to make sure you're good enough for my friend" kind of way (especially as Nathanaël and she grew closer), and half in a "what's the best way to go about setting you up with my best friend" kind of way (which she gave up on at Nathanaël's vehement insistence).

But later, she could admit, she just found Marinette fascinating. The Evillustrator started it, really, since Alix knew that Marinette played a role in at least the first attempt to cleanse the akuma. And then she became their class president (beating out Chloé), she beat Max at Mecha Strike III (something Alix herself failed to do on several occasions), she made a poster for Alix's competition with Kim (even rooting for her, despite the fact that they'd hardly spoken outside majority-class settings), and, of course, she had that crush on Adrien.

Which would normally not be any of Alix's business, and in fact she didn't think it was, but it was the reason why Nathanaël had given up on Marinette, and anything that affected her best friend like that definitely was Alix's business.

The long and short of it, though, was that Alix had come to regard Marinette as nothing short of impressive. _Life wouldn't be dull quite so often with her around, that's for sure. If she's not the epicenter of the drama, she's weaseling her way into being a major player._

 _I should hang out with her more. I'll talk to Nath about it. Meanwhile, if it's cool with Nath, then I'll need a plan._

With a determined nod, Alix put her pen to paper, though what she wrote was far from class notes. _Let's go with a standard, three phase plan._

 _Phase one, initiate contact. The best way to become friends quickly is to spend time together without other people to facilitate. That means no Nath and no Alya. How to best go about that? Maybe I should go slower. Invite her and her buds along with Nath and I sometimes, maybe invite myself along with them after a while if necessary, and then move on to solo hangouts once we're more familiar._

 _Yeah, that's probably smarter. In that case, I'll coordinate with Nath. He probably wouldn't mind. If not, then I'll tag along with Kim or something and we'll hang out as a group that way. Point is, still lots of friends, but smaller than the usual crowd. We'll work our way down. Either way, the key is initiative. I seriously doubt Marinette will suddenly decide she wants to spend a bunch of time hanging out with you._

 _Not that it's impossible. That's kind of what you're doing. From her perspective, anyway._

 _Let's see… Phase two, acquaintanceship to friendship. Think about her interests. Fashion, obviously. I wonder if she likes my style. I know I'm not "fashionable" but… whatever. Do I know enough about fashion to follow a rudimentary conversation? No. Research? Maybe not. I think Marinette is the kind of person that it'll be just as effective, maybe more so, to just ask questions as they come up. The trick here is to get her to like hanging out with me. Which, given our starkly different interests, should be fun. Not that we don't share anything. We both play Mecha Strike III. I'll ask her about other games she likes sometime. I wonder what her genre is._

 _Either way, video games works. It's a chance to learn a little about design, perhaps, too. And there's going to be some measure of just winging it. Otherwise it'll be forced and counterproductive so I'll try to just rephrase the general concept and move on. Acquaintanceship to friendship hinges mostly on convincing her that I'm worth spending time with. This phase is complete when Marinette would spend time with you over the control of her normal at-home routine. A good indicator of success would likely be her initiating contact, asking to hang out, though her even just texting you first would be a good indicator that it's at least getting there. I think her initiating a hangout would be best, just to be safe. Slow isn't bad, all the time._

 _After that, then phase three begins. That's friendship to buddies. Of course, I'm not going to take over as her best friend or anything, but after the friendship phase comes individual hangouts. Depending on her, I may not even have to think about this one. But, after she decides she actually likes spending time with me, then hanging out alone wouldn't be weird – or most likely not. That's where, when she throws herself into the spotlight, I can back her up and I won't look insane. Plus, new friend._

 _When to initiate, though? After talking with Nath, naturally, but past that probably on the weekend sometime. We could go ice skating. That's something that she knows – probably – that I do with Nath. It wouldn't look too weird if we wanted company. It's a thought. I'll run it by Nath after class._

 _Phase two is longest, so that's going to require the most creativity. Activities and all that stuff. As I said, ice skating is a good one to… to break the ice._ Alix snickered, pausing her pen for just a moment. _After that, there's Mecha Strike, but other than that I need to come up with some more ideas._

 _Well, there goes the rest of my day._

Alix cornered Nathanaël after classes. "Nath. Bud. I need to talk to you."

Nathanael wrung his bag strap and smiled uncertainly. "Um, okay? Why does this sound like it's going to be something huge?"

"It is." Alix said. "I mean, isn't." She shook her head. "Look. I was thinking earlier and I realized that I never really talk to Marinette and that side of the classroom."

"I'm on that side of the classroom."

"That quadrant. Point is, what do you think about inviting those four ice skating with us?"

Nathanaël smiled, opening his mouth and tilting his head before just shaking it instead. "Um. Don't punch me, but do you want to invite those four, or just Marinette?"

Alix furrowed her brow. "What are you talking about? They seem like cool guys. It's a shame we never talk."

"Mhmm. How many phases?"

"Excuse me?"

"How many phases does your plan have?"

Alix crossed her arms, glaring at him. "Three."

He raised his eyebrows. "Really? Huh."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing." He turned away, shrugging, but he still had a smile on his lips that told Alix he thought the entire situation was hilarious.

"Hey, Nath, you're not getting away with that." She followed him down the hall. "What's that 'huh' supposed to mean?"

"Nothing, I swear." He bit his lip. "Just that when you decided you wanted to be my friend you sat on my desk and asked me out for pizza."

"That doesn't mean I didn't have a plan."

"Oh, trust me, I know you did."

"Excuse me?" Alix punched his arm, jaw hanging open despite the grin on her face. "How dare."

"Exactly how many notebooks have you burned through writing down your plans?"

"I resent that. It's good to have a plan."

"Sometimes, yeah." The smile began to fall off Nathanaël's lips. He turned to her, stopped her with a hand on her shoulder, and she saw the serious concern in his eyes. "But you can't plan to become someone's friend."

"I've factored the improv into the plan."

"Yes, of course you have, it's just…" He rearranged the books in his hands so that he could grab her shoulder easier. "Sometimes the best plan is to not have one."

Alix frowned. She took a small step back, shaking her head. "Alright, Nath. What, exactly, are you talking about? This isn't about ice skating."

"Just think about it." The seriousness left his gaze and he smirked playfully at her, prancing off as he called over his shoulder, "and I would be delighted to have those four join us for ice skating."

Alix stared at him as he left her behind, confused. She shook it off quickly, though. "Hey!" When she caught up with him, all pretense of a serious conversation had already gone. "Okay, so I'll invite Marinette."

"So, the plan is about her?"

"Of course. You know I like to minimize variables."

"Hate to break it to you, love, but you're not minimizing anything."

"Okay, _yes_ , I still have to factor the other three in, but this way I have a more easily defined goal. That's necessary for a good plan."

"Mhmm. If you say so."

"Okay I swear. Tell me right now what's going through that head of yours."

"Tell you what." Nathanaël rolled his eyes. "I'll tell you after ice skating."

Alix frowned, but sighed. She had enough experience with Nathanaël to let it lie. If it was important, he'd tell her. _Still. He's being weird._ "You're sure it won't be weird with Marinette along?"

Nathanaël snorted. "Trust me. It will only be great on my end." Alix looked at him doubtfully. "Okay, you're concerned because of the crush thing. I swear I'm not being self-sacrificing for your sake. I know you don't need it, so don't worry. One way or another, I'll have fun. I am as over Marinette as Nino, probably."

Alix smirked, shaking her head slightly. _I'll let that pass._ "Do you mean you're as over her as Nino is over her, or you're as over her as you are over Nino."

"Both. And since I didn't have a crush on Nino, I think I can handle ice skating with my former crush."

"If you're sure."

"I have literally never been more sure of anything."

"You're excited, aren't you?"

Nathanaël chuckled. "Definitely."

"You think I'm going to make a fool of myself."

"Only to me, Alix. Only to me."

"Okay, you know what? You can shut up." She hit him again, laughing. And then she hooked her arm through his. "Thanks buddy."

"Shouldn't you be asking Marinette out right now?"

Alix scoffed. "I'll text her when I get home."

"You have her number?"

"We did that thing once, remember?"

"Ah, right." Nathanaël bit back another laugh. "Good luck."

"I don't need it. I have a plan, remember?"

"Sure. See you tomorrow."

"See you soon. Love you."

"Love you too, Alix." He rolled his eyes. "Now go, your brother's waiting for you."

Alix shook her head and hurried off to meet her brother, who drove her home. For the rest of the day, as she did for the majority of class, Alix considered the way ice skating could go.

 _Obviously if she can't come, the thing is moot. It might still be worth it to invite the rest of them, since even though the goal is Marinette, they're kind of a packaged deal. That way, if Marinette herself is busy or something then there's still progress overall._

 _Otherwise, there's… two to the fourth- sixteen potentials, here? It's the state of good or not at ice skating for each of those four. Of course, if some of them are bad, and some are good, they'll help each other. I shouldn't swoop in if I'm not necessary. With how clumsy Marinette can be sometimes, though… Odds? Hard to say._

 _Well, swooping is bad. We should think of proper conduct for barely-acquaintances who are going ice skating together. That means excessive touching, excessive clinging – not physically, but like – ugh why do I try to explain things to myself? I obviously know what I mean. Point is, that's off the table._

 _I should make a list. All sixteen potentials and the most likely short-term outcomes. Yeah. Where's my journal?_

Her phone buzzed, distracting her from her search.

NK – btw, remember to factor in that Marinette & Crew are literally some of the most friendly people in class.  
AK – Good point.  
NK – also don't miss opportunities just because you didn't think about them ahead of time.  
AK – I told you I factored improv into the plan. I usually do!  
NK – just saying.  
AK – Look, I love you, but let me plan.  
NK – you're literally planning out your friendship w them! Take a break.  
AK – But you know I have to get my plan through congress!  
NK – I understand that that was a reference but please reference French things maybe?  
AK – Your English isn't so bad that you can't listen to a musical.  
NK – you realize I have listened to Hamilton, right? You were obsessed with it a while ago. I couldn't go to your house without hearing it.  
AK – Or be within five meters of me.  
NK – that too.  
AK – Anyway.  
AK – Point is, stop trying to change me.  
AK – You love me too much to want me any different. 3  
NK – not trying to change you so much as give you a nudge in the right direction. Just be genuine!  
AK – Lol bye.  
NK – I'm serious!  
AK – I'm a planner.  
AK – Plans are my "genuine"  
NK – I know, and I love you. But I can tell this is important to you and I want this to end well.  
AK – Don't worry about me, Nath. Even if the plan goes kaput, I have you to back me up ;)  
NK – naturally. Just please don't think too hard? Just let yourself make some friends.  
AK – I'll make All The Friends.  
NK – lol sure. You asked Marinette, yet?  
AK – No, I was…  
AK – Don't even say it.  
NK – planning?  
AK – You're the worst.  
NK – ask her!  
NK – and you have no more than five minutes to write the text.  
NK – I will text you in five minutes to be sure; start now.

Alix sighed, switching to her contacts list to find Marinette. _Alright. Five minutes. So most important question. Do I invite her, and extend the invitation to her friends – that's "why don't you join us, your friends are welcome too" – or should I invite the lot with a "hey why don't you and yours join us"?_

 _Either way, I should invite her friends in the same message that I invite her. Less "on the spot" that way. Hmm… Given how friendly Marinette typically is, the first one might be a step further, quicker, than the second one, but it's also more risky, since it's more personal. She might think it's weird?_

 _Ugh. What about a list? No time, Nath will chew me out._

 _Hey, Nath. I'll just ask him._

AK – Um.  
NK – ?  
AK – How should I ask her? Two options:  
AK – Blah, blah, ice skating, "Why don't you join us? Alya, Nino, and Adrien can come too, if they're free."  
AK – Alternatively: "your friends" leaving it unnumbered and unspecific so she can bring like Rose or something if she's so inclined.  
AK – And the second option is "…Why don't you and your buds join us?" et cetera we love the company and stuff  
NK – The Company.  
AK – We WOULD love the company. Happy?  
NK – lol yeah. What's the difference?  
AK – One invites her, and extends the invitation to her friends at her discretion.  
AK – That implies we're more interested in spending time with her only.  
AK – Which is more personal and also might be weird if she thinks you still have a crush on her bc there's the possibility that she might guess I'm trying to set her up with you.  
NK – not unbelievable.  
AK – The other invites all of them from the start, implying an equal desire to hang out with her friends as her.  
NK – *rolling my eyes*  
AK – Shut up.  
NK – is there an equal desire to hang out w alya and the boys?  
AK – I don't know.  
NK – again, ?  
AK – I'm not a sensitive artist soul like you, Nath.  
AK – You know it takes at least one (1) Adventure to Find The True Meaning of Friendship for me to have Feelings.  
NK – five minutes is up btw  
AK – You're no help at all.  
NK – okay so what would be more disappointing to you, Marinette coming alone, or Adrien coming alone?  
AK – Idk Adrien is like a sunshine child he might melt the ice rink.  
NK – your turn to shut up except for to answer the q.  
AK – Fine.  
AK – Maybe Adrien.  
NK – there's your answer.  
NK – it's such a small difference I guarantee she won't even notice but if it makes you feel better  
NK – you want to spend time w her more than everyone else so let your text reflect that.  
AK – You are wise beyond your years.  
AK – Also wtf I can't just ADMIT that upfront I have an Image.  
NK – then do the other! As I said, she 99% won't even notice!  
NK – now ask her!  
AK – Alright, I'm going!

Alix, despite what she told Nathanaël, didn't end up texting Marinette until later that night. Mostly because she had to eat dinner. Or at least that was her excuse. Regardless of the reason, it was nighttime by the time Alix finally opened a text conversation with Marinette.

After several more minutes of deliberation, she sent her text.

AK – Hey Marinette! I realized we don't hang out all that often, so I thought maybe it'd be fun if you could join Nath and I for ice skating on Saturday. Alya and your boys are totally invited too :)

Marinette's reply took just long enough to arrive that Alix debated texting Nathanaël. _He'd just tease me. I don't know what's gotten into him. Sure, we tease each other all the time, but this is different. Oh shit was that the phone?_

MD – Hey Alix! I'd love to come ice skating with you guys! And I'll ask the others if they want to come too. :)  
AK – Awesome! I'll see you at school tomorrow?  
MD – Yeah, see you then! :3

Alix sighed. _She used the cat emote oh my god._ She examined the text for a moment, and then shook her head fiercely and went back to the conversation with Nathanaël. _No. I overanalyze things as a hobby, but heck if I'm going to analyze the kind of emotes she uses. I just straight up refuse. It is kind of cute, though._

AK – Psst, I asked her.  
NK – it's been four hours.  
AK – Well I did it!  
NK – so do we have The Company coming along?  
AK – Marinette agreed, she said she'd ask her buds.  
NK – looking forward to it.

Alix shook her head. _So am I. Now, where was that journal?_

* * *

Alix took a deep breath and stepped out onto the ice. With a deft turn, she looked back to the others with her. Nathanaël, who went ice skating with her all the time, was nearly as comfortable (and skilled, she'd admit only to him) on the ice as she was.

The other four, however, were different stories entirely. Alya stumbled, and though Alix braced herself and bent down to catch her, she managed to regain control and get a hold of the wall. Adrien nearly fell flat on his butt, but Nathanaël caught him under the arms and hoisted him back to his feet before he could hit the ground. Both of them had red cheeks after that, and Alix was pretty certain that it wasn't the cold. _Aw, Nath._ Nino was similar to Alya, though Alix did end up holding him and letting him balance on her before he moved to the wall. Lastly, Marinette stepped onto the ice, wavering a little but not losing her balance quite as much as her friends.

Once she had a firm grasp on the wall, Alix skated by, patting her shoulder. "Good job. You were the least close to wiping out."

Marinette giggled. "I was still pretty close to falling on my butt."

"No, Adrien was close to falling on his butt."

"Hey!" Adrien frowned back at her, which made Alix laugh.

"I think you meant, 'Thank you, Nath. You saved my beautiful backside.' Eh?"

"I thanked him!" He tripped over his own feet, then, but caught himself on the wall. "How do you do this?"

"Well…" Alix skated up to his level. "At your level, it's usually smart to keep your eyes forward." He turned his head so that he was looking forward again. "There, see? Other than that, I can do this," she spun and began skating backwards alongside him, "because I've been coming here with Nath for months now, and I roller-blade. Which isn't exactly the same, but still. Principles, yeah? You'll get the hang of it."

With a wink, she slowed and caught Nathanaël's arm as he passed. They spun around each other and separated facing different directions. "Hey, Nino." She said. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Nathanaël spin to face her and exaggeratedly roll his eyes before falling in line with Marinette.

"So, is the ice skating just so you and Nath can show off?" Nino asked, and amused smirk on his lips.

"Well, duh. How else am I supposed to impress you all?"

"Aw, you're trying to impress us?"

"Should I be?"

"I'm pretty sure we all want to be your friends anyway."

"Well then what am I doing? I could have just bought you all a pizza."

Nathanaël's voice over her shoulder drew Nino's attention, making Alix need to stabilize him after he stumbled. "Like you did for me, you mean?"

"Hey, that was a quality pizza."

"No arguments here."

Alya's voice sounded disbelieving when she asked, "You really just bought him a pizza?"

"No," Nathanaël said, "She bought herself a pizza and offered to share with me."

"I bought it for both of us." Alix said.

Alya laughed. "That's truly friendship at its finest."

"I thought so."

 _This is going well. Nath was right. These guys are basically too friendly for this to ever be awkward or anything._ She fell back as Nathanaël skated past her, so that she could bring up the rear of the group with Marinette.

Marinette was eyeing her curiously, so Alix raised an eyebrow to incite the question. "How often do you come here?"

"Every other week or so. Sometimes every week, but that's getting less common."

"I didn't know you liked ice skating."

Alix shrugged. "It's kind of one of my things with Nath. I was only here a few times before we decided to come together." She saw Nathanaël give her a quick, concerned glance before moving his gaze back to Adrien, the concern gone as quickly as the glance.

"Really? And you two decided to keep coming? So often?"

"It was…" Alix paused, glancing at Nathanaël. "It was a way to deal with some stuff. Sort of still is, I guess, but it's mostly just tradition at this point."

"Can I ask what? Or is that too personal?" Marinette's face held only the most tender concern and innocent curiosity. Alix gritted her teeth, inhaling as deeply as she could. _I've only ever told Nathanaël that._ "It's okay if you don't want to talk about it. It's none of my business."

Alix released the breath and shook her head. "No. It's cool. I mean, I don't really want to talk about it, no, but I'll say that it had to do with my being akumatized. Lots of stuff to deal with after that. Nath helped. So did this. That's the basics, anyway."

Alix flinched when she looked forward and realized that the rest of the crew had gone uncharacteristically quiet, and the mood was sober and tense. "But, hey, you don't come here often?" She tried. "You're pretty good at this. You seem rusty, not new."

"Ah, well," Marinette said, "I've been here a few times before. Nothing like how often you come."

Alix smiled, seeing Marinette glide along, barely touching the wall. "Come on, get off the wall for a bit."

"What?" Marinette's eyes went wide? "No! I'm definitely going to fall!"

"Nonsense. You're good at this. Just pass up Alya, okay? And if you do fall, which you won't, I'll catch you."

Marinette worried her lip for about half a lap around the rink before agreeing. Alix sped up and spun around, so that she could face Marinette and was ready in case of a fall, and Marinette let go of the wall.

Alix was right, of course, in that Marinette was better than she thought she was. She stuck out her tongue in concentration and made it as far as even with Adrien before she got distracted by his laughing at something Nino said and tripped.

Alix caught her under the arms, but she had been too slow to react and Marinette had fallen a little too far. As a result, Alix was squatting on her skates, holding Marinette only just high enough that her knees didn't hit the ice. As Alix began trying to lift Marinette, the other girl also tried to lift herself, which threw Alix off just enough that her skates flew out from under her and she tipped backwards onto the ice.

"Ow." Nathanaël said, holding his hand. Alix looked up at him, realizing that he had slid in front of them and put his hand under her head so that it didn't hit the ice directly. Unfortunately for him, that meant his hand and knees has pretty hard hits. _Better than a concussion, he'd say at least._ "You two okay?"

"Dude! Nice save, Nath!" Nino exclaimed.

"Seconded." Alix said, still looking up at him. "That was impressive."

"Ahh, I'm so sorry!" Marinette squealed, trying to disentangle herself from Alix. Because of the slick ice, though, she only ended up propping herself up on her hands and knees before slipping and falling back onto Alix.

"Oof. Alright, girl. You're good. It's cool. You're not hurt?"

"Me?! I fell on you! Are you okay?"

Nathanaël and Alya worked together to help Marinette to her feet. Once she was up, Nathanaël pulled Alix up. "I'm fine, Marinette. I've had much worse falls, believe me." With a wink, Alix turned to thank Nathanaël for saving her head. Once she had, she turned back to Marinette, putting a hand on her arm. "You're okay, though?"

"Y-yeah. I'm fine."

"Then let's go!" She turned to continue around the rink, meeting Nathanaël's amused grin. "What?"

He coughed awkwardly. "Nothing." She rolled her eyes and skated past. But as she did, Nathanaël leaned close to whisper in her ear. "Smooth, by the way."

* * *

"Okay, spill. What has been up with you?" Alix crossed her arms, frowning at Nathanaël, who just stared contentedly at her with a massive grin. They had only just gotten back to Alix's house after ice skating and saying goodbye to the others.

"You like her."

"What?"

" _Marinette_. Duh."

"I- what?" Alix blinked. "Wait, like…"

"Yes, like romantically." Nathanaël rolled his eyes.

"Don't be ridiculous. I don't-"

"Don't worry about whether you're being too forward by asking if she'd like to go somewhere with you and only inviting her friends in the next sentence, rather than the same one?"

Alix opened her mouth to retort, and quickly shut it. "Okay, fair, but-"

"Don't create three stage plans to get close to her, despite historical evidence that all you really need to make friends is pizza?"

"Okay I know that's the joke but we first really started talking about the akuma thing that is not applicable."

"Don't say things like 'I've had much worse falls' and winking after she literally falls on you."

"You make it sound like-"

"Flirting. Yes. You were flirting."

Alix pursed her lips, staring down Nathanaël for a long moment. _He thinks I like her? Why would I even? I've barely spoken to her! Though… she is cute. And we had fun at the ice rink. And she is pretty impressive._

 _And now that he mentions it, I don't usually put this kind of effort into something that should be pretty simple._

 _Shit. Does that mean I like her?_

"Not to mention the touching. You haven't touched anyone that much except _me_ since you were akumatized. All the shoulder touches, arm touches. Like every time you passed her, I swear."

"Okay, okay, I get it." Alix rubbed her temples. "But, um… _if_ I did like her, romantically…"

"Alix, I thought you might have had a crush when you asked if we could invite her. I still mean what I said then. I had a crush on her, yeah, but I'd be ecstatic if you wanted to ask her out."

Alix bit her lip, not quite sure whether to believe him or not. So, rather than think about it, she decided to just tease him. "Okay, but since you got to call me out. You and Adrien?"

Nathanaël flushed. "Nothing."

"Oh, please. Don't pretend. If I can't hide a crush, neither can you."

He buried his face in his hands. "Ugh, you're the worst."

"Thank you."

"This isn't about me, though."

"Excuse you. I disagree."

"Okay, look. I will go along with whatever shenanigans you cook up with that whole situation, but only after we deal with _your_ crush."

"Come on, I want to put it off, too."

"No. I am putting my foot down."

"You're cute when you get serious. I should call Adrien."

"We don't even know if he's gay."

"Nor Marinette."

Nathanaël frowned, and then lit up with a grin. _I just lost this argument, didn't I?_ "Well, as you said, we should focus on only one goal, right? That's necessary for a good plan. So, we deal with your crush first, since that's kind of what we're already working on."

"I hate you."

"Don't be a sore loser."

"I mean you did tell me to ditch the planning, so I could win, but I'm letting you win."

"Why?"

"Because I don't like this feeling. It's like… I want to be around her but also I'm terrified to be around her. And not for the usual reason I'm terrified to be around people. Like I actually care about her opinion of me, and it's freaky."

"Aww. My little Alix is so in love."

"Don't you even dare say that word. I will admit it is a crush but that is it."

"Alright." He rolled his eyes. "So, we keep hanging out with her. When do you ditch me and go on dates?"

"Phase three. Which is characterized by Marinette choosing to spend time with me over her day-to-day life at home."

"So, when she asks you out, is what I'm hearing."

"Yes, but not like that. Like… when or if Marinette asks me like how I asked her. You know, so that the implication is that the hangout is kind of mostly for her sake but also inviting everyone else to make it not weird."

"So, when Marinette asks you to hang out, instead of the other way around."

"Yes, but not if she asks for both of us as a set, or to invite us or me to an already arranged thing with her friends."

Nathanaël laughed, shaking his head. "Wow. I've never seen you like this. Crushing Alix is adorable."

"You shut your mouth."

"How do you plan to find out if she likes girls?"

"I don't know."

"You don't?"

Alix smiled uncertainly. "I was kind of thinking that either it'd come up during phase two – these hangouts and generally getting closer – or I'd just risk it."

"Just risk it?" Nathanaël's eyes went wide. "Are you sure?"

"What? This isn't a bad high-school drama. I'm not just going to spontaneously kiss her. If the time comes, I'll tell her, and just… let things fall where they may."

"And you can't do that now?"

"No, we're hardly even friends!"

"Okay, well you seemed to be pretty chummy at the ice rink."

"It's not enough. These things take time."

Nathanaël was quiet for a long time. "Those spontaneous kisses always made me uncomfortable, to be honest."

"Ugh, trust me, you're not alone. Like even when the other person is into it, it's still just like, you didn't ask permission!"

"Seriously!"

"I just don't understand why anyone would kiss someone without asking first. _Especially_ as a crush confession."

"It's kind of scary that that's so widespread."

Alix nodded, sighing. "Oh, man, I'm so screwed."

Nathanaël furrowed his brow. "Sorry?"

"Just imagining Marinette and Adrien getting together."

"Which one of them would scream if they did the spontaneous kiss thing?"

"Both."

Nathanaël laughed. "Probably."

"What do I do about her crush?"

"I'm not sure there's much you can do, except show her that there are other options. She seems pretty… singularly minded on the subject."

"True. I'll just have to step up my game and woo her right out from under him." Alix frowned. "Are you sure you're okay with this?"

"Why wouldn't I be? I only told you three times now."

"Yeah, but this is where we gave up with you. The whole, 'she has a crush on Adrien' thing."

Nathanaël stood and took her shoulders in his hands, looking intently into her eyes. "Alix, I swear I'm okay with this. Encourage it, even. I'm the one who asked you not to pursue this for me. It was my decision. This time around, it's your crush, and we'll take it as far as you want to. Okay?"

"Okay."


	2. Chapter 2

Phase two was a slow, arduous process. While it necessarily meant that Alix was getting lots of time to hang out with Marinette, and they were getting closer and closer, that also meant that Alix was beginning to be witness to Marinette's crush more blatantly.

At first, it was how she stuttered when she had to talk to him. Then it was the dusting of pink on her cheeks when she looked over at him while they were hanging out. Then it was how she'd relate things to him or things he'd done just a little more than her other friends. Then it was talking about how perfect, how beautiful, how kind and sweet he was.

After a while, Alix almost wanted to hate the guy. She didn't. Couldn't. Because Marinette was right in that he was a very kind person, and Alix was enjoying becoming his friend as well, not to mention she was still on the lookout for material she could use when it was Nathanaël's turn to go after his crush.

Even still, it turned the uncomfortable tug towards Marinette in her stomach into a furious wrench. But she had to be patient. Take it slow. Flirt a little, every once in a while. Not enough for Marinette to get used to it, often enough that it wouldn't be mistaken for anything else, subtle enough to not scare her off.

 _This sucks. I can't believe we haven't gotten to phase three yet. It's like… every time she asks to hang out, it's just tacking me on to the rest of the group. That's not the right criteria, so I can't move forward, but this is killing me._

"Uh, Alix?" Nathanaël said, getting her to look up. "You do realize that these portraits are supposed to be themed 'fearless', not 'kill me with a sock full of pet rocks'."

That managed to pull a laugh out of her. "Why pet rocks, in particular?"

"I like to imagine that they're all just especially posh rocks."

"Posh?"

"Yeah. You hate posh. Thus…"

"A very good point. Sorry."

Nathanaël worried his lip for a moment, and put his paintbrush down. "What's wrong?"

"What?"

"What's bothering you?"

Alix sighed. "Marinette."

"Are you still stuck in phase two?"

"Yeah."

"Then just do phase three."

"I can't! I set the criteria-"

"Why?" Nathanaël opened and closed his mouth repeatedly as he tried to figure out his words. "Why did you set the criteria that way?"

"Because, that's the best way-"

"Define best."

"It's the safest way."

Nathanaël smiled sadly at her. From anyone else, she'd expect some line about how Alix didn't do the safe thing. How she's a thrill-seeker, how she's competitive, how she's the last one they'd expect to worry about that. But not him. He knew. "I know I'm the last person who should be giving this kind of advice, but while I'm not an expert in relationships… I am basically an expert on you."

Alix snorted, rolling her eyes.

"Listen. Remember what I told you when this all started? Before you even asked Marinette to come ice skating with us that first time?"

"Vaguely. Something about the plan being stupid."

"Not stupid, no. Alix," he took her hand, holding it clasped in both of his, "you have a crush. Pretty much the cardinal rule of relationships, romantic or platonic, is allowing yourself to be vulnerable. No, let me finish. Remember when we first started talking? Like, _really_ talking. It was because you wanted to tell someone about how you felt about your akumatization. Did you lay out elaborate plans before that? Did you make five-step programs on how you'd tell me pretty much your deepest secret?" Alix shook her head. "No. Exactly. Planning things isn't a bad thing, not at all, but you aren't just planning things, Alix. You use it as a shield. You put it up between you and everyone else. When your relationship stagnates, you can blame it on them, that they haven't met the criteria yet, instead of trying to do it yourself. That's why I told you when this started to let yourself wing it a little. I think I said something like, sometimes the best plan is to not have one."

"I remember that now."

"If you don't let yourself be vulnerable, no relationship will deepen."

Alix closed her eyes, considering his words. "It's not easy to do that."

"I know."

"What do you suggest?"

"Put yourself out there. You don't have to ask her out or anything, but share. It'll be a step."

* * *

AK – Mecha Strike at 5, my place?  
MD – Sure! Sounds like fun!

 _Right, so, how am I going to do this?_

 _Obviously, she sets the pace. Likely topics of discussion? School is practically guaranteed. I could talk about Nath's portraits if I need to pick a topic. He wants me to share, that topic is… loaded, but it still offers an out. I don't have to go into the deeper meaning of it all if it doesn't seem appropriate. So, I'll bring up the portraits, if I'm put in the position of picking a topic, mention that I'm modelling for one, and go over the general premise of the concentration. If she asks for more details, I'll talk about its meaning to me. Leaving Nath's side of things out of it mostly because you know, not my secrets. But like, if she seems interested, not just humoring me._

Alix worried her lip, running a finger along the spines of the game cases on her shelf until she found Mecha Strike III. _"You use it as a shield."_ Alix gritted her teeth. _What if he's right? What if she doesn't meet my arbitrary criteria and then you just use it as an excuse to back out?_

 _No. I won't._

 _But you always do. You can't say Nath wasn't right. How many close friends do you have? One is how many. Because you didn't hide behind schemes._

 _Whatever._ Alix shook her head. _I'll consider improv, too. Stipulation: honesty. No lying, no hiding, no half-truths and obfuscations. That's the only way._

 _But what if you're not close enough for that? Your actual feelings aren't exactly rainbows and unicorns._ Alix slipped the game disc into the machine and snickered. _Well… maybe there's some rainbows. Definitely no unicorns, though._

Alix had given Marinette a few hours before the meeting time, so she quickly found herself with nothing to do but wait. _What about the game? Marinette likes the ladybug bot. That means… right. And maybe I'll let her just browse my other games after she most likely wipes the floor with me. She can pick._

 _Wait. Has Marinette been in my room before? I don't think so. That means she's going to give it a once-over when she gets here, and probably look around throughout the night. Shit._

She stood abruptly, turning in place. She examined everything. In one corner, trophies on top of a bookshelf. _Okay, trophies. Natural conversation topic. Junior sports stuff, though, mostly. Not a big deal._ The bookshelf itself was framed by sticky notes with everything written on them from "Remember to keep your chin up" to "River otters eat alligators?!" to "Hellenistic Greece". They served as markers for her shelves, classifying the books contained therein, reminders of fun facts, and her daily encouragement board. _Color coded, of course, because what are we, animals?_ With hesitance, Alix sat in front of her bookcase to check over all her pink (personal) notes. Just to ensure there wasn't anything incriminating. _"Show her that there are other options", my pronoun game is strong with this one. Uh… "It's okay to feel that way. To think about it. to talk about it." Cutting it close, but probably vague enough. "Sometimes the best plan is to not have one."_

 _I just realized that a lot of these are quotes from Nath. Aw, we're adorable._

 _"Marinette was beautiful on the ice. I don't know why I thought she would need help. That keeps happening."_

Alix quickly tore that particular note down, using her other hand to hide her face. _Imagine if she looks at these and I hadn't caught that._

 _"Nath wanted to paint me. I'm proud of him. We're getting better."_

 _"Nath switched his concentration to 'fearlessness'. I think he's painting about the akuma."_

 _"Adrien looked happy. Even if the party was terrible, I hope he got something from it."_

 _"Chloé picked my pencil up for me. I don't think she realized she was being nice until after I thanked her. Maybe there's more than just a snobby rich girl going on there."_

 _"Alya's actually a really good writer. Look back at her post 'On Ladybug's Identity' as reference for that one-act play." That's kind of old now._

Alix frowned and looked at the sticky note in her hand, reading it over again. _I talk about pretty much everyone up here._ She continued to stare until Nathanaël's words echoed in her head again. " _You use it as a shield. You put it up between you and everyone else." Maybe there's a reason no one has read these except him._ She replaced the note, turning quickly away from the shelf before she could change her mind. _Didn't you say no hiding? No obfuscation? Live up to Nath's portrait of you._

Alix closed her eyes. She stood there for a moment, contemplating that, and then grabbed a pen and pink sticky note off of her desk. "Live up to your portrait." She muttered as she wrote, and then she stuck the note to the bookshelf.

Before she turned away, she saw a purple note, with words written in a different hand than her own. _"Eyes up."_ She smiled. Nathanaël had put that there – all the purple notes were from him – when their friendship was still relatively new. _Now that I think about it, it's kind of weird that he saw these that early on. No one's seen these. Even Dad and Jalil don't look closely at them. Marinette might, but even if she does, we've been friends much longer than I had been with Nath._

 _I guess I have to attribute that to the whole "we were working through mental trauma from akumatization together" thing. I'm surprised at how far we've come, honestly. It's still nice to have that reminder, though._

 _And I guess it's also a reminder that he's totally right. I can't expect to get close to people without letting them in. That's what happened with him, and now he's like, my only really close friend. He's probably the only person I've ever been this close to._

Alix sighed heavily, sitting on her bed and falling back. _And god is it scary that I want that kind of closeness with someone else._

 _Get up. You still have so much to do. You're not even almost ready for this._ With a groan, she stood and scurried about to check and double check and triple check and check to the nth power until time caught up with her and Marinette was already there.

"Hi." Alix said, greeting Marinette at the door.

"Hey!" Marinette grinned cheekily. "Ready to lose?"

"Not this time, Marinette." Alix chuckled, guiding Marinette to her room. "I've been practicing."

"Oh, so you might be an actual challenge this time?"

"Rude!"

Alix opened the door to her room, allowing Marinette to step in before following behind her and closing the door. Marinette stepped to the middle of the room and spun around, examining everything. "We've been hanging out so much recently, I can't believe this is the first time I've ever been in your room."

Alix laughed awkwardly, rubbing her neck. "Yeah, well, no one really has. Nath, of course, but otherwise I'm usually the one going to other people's places."

"Really?" Marinette looked at her in surprise before casting her eyes around the room again and moving towards the desk. "Is this the watch from the race?"

Alix gulped, looking at the shiny, ornamented pocket-watch placed on the wall shelf near her desk. "Yeah." _Did I remember to dust that?_ "Dad gave it to me for my birthday. It's an heirloom."

"It's pretty."

"Yeah." Alix knelt down to turn on the game console while Marinette crossed the room to examine her trophies.

"You were in a lot of sports."

Alix hummed in agreement, focusing intently on the console in front of her and regretting immensely that she didn't take down some of those sticky notes.

"Aw, Alix, these notes are so cute! Ah… wait, do otters really kill alligators?"

Alix chuckled, biting her lip. "Yep."

"How? Otters are so cute, though!"

"Hmm, it's actually a learned behavior." She risked a glance back. As she feared, Marinette was squatting in front of the bookshelf. _That means she's reading them all. Well, you left them there. You face the music now._ "They get on the alligator's back and bite their necks, around here." She tapped the base of her neck. "That way the gator can't get them. And they don't actually kill them that way, but… actually that's a little messed up. I'll save it and let you keep thinking otters are just really cute water cats."

"Aw, come on, I'm curious now! How do they manage to kill alligators?"

Alix coughed. _Not that I think about it, I really should have predicted this conversation._ "Well, they outlast them, basically. The otter has more stamina, so all it really needs to do is hold on until the gator tires itself out with its thrashing. When that happens, the lactic acid produced in the gator's muscles essentially paralyzes it for a while. At that point, the otter drags the gator onto land and picks apart its scales, so that it can get at the meat underneath basically at its leisure."

Marinette stared at her with a horrified expression. "Wait, the gator is just paralyzed? It's still alive?"

Alix nodded.

"That is messed up!"

"I told you."

"I'll never be able to look at otters the same way again."

"I'm of the opinion that things can be both cute and terrifying at the same time." Alix smiled, looking into Marinette's eyes, before she turned around to continue reading the sticky notes. Alix coughed awkwardly. "So, you want to play?"

Marinette turned, grinning, and ecstatically agreed. She joined Alix on the bed and took her controller.

Surprisingly, Alix did present Marinette with a bit of a challenge. She even came close to winning a few times. And she had fun. They exchanged some good-natured trash talk (Alix had no idea that Marinette had such creative insults in her), and spent a good while playing fight after fight.

Eventually, though, Alix had to concede. "Alright, alright. That's it. You've bested me."

"For the twentieth time."

"Harsh, Marinette."

She giggled. "Alright then, what else do you want to do?"

Alix laid back on the bed. "You pick something. Look around. Games are on that shelf."

Marinette got up and looked around the room some more. "Hey, is this you?"

"Hmm? Yeah." Alix sat up, looking over to the portrait Nathanaël had painted of her. It was from an earlier point in time than the current portrait. One when she was more vulnerable.

"I like it. You look so natural."

"Hah, thanks. Nath painted it."

"Really? Wow. I haven't seen any of his paintings, only that comic."

"He's… really skilled, yeah. But so are you, I hear."

Marinette turned towards her in surprise. "What?"

"Yeah. Not that I know anything about design, but I think they're cool. The one's I've seen anyway. And you're a good artist, clothes design notwithstanding."

"Aw, thank you. Speaking of…" Marinette started creeping towards the closet. "May I?"

"Pfft, go for it."

Marinette pulled open the closet and gasped. "She _does_ have dresses."

"Of course I do. I wear them at like, parties and stuff. We've never gone to an event where we had to dress up is all."

"I always figured you were more of a pantsuit girl."

"I know. I like to surprise people."

Marinette gasped again, pulling out a sequined dark pink flapper dress, nearly the same color as Alix's hair. "Tell me the truth. Has _anyone_ other than your family seen you in these?"

Alix wanted to mention the hundreds of visitors during events at the museum, but settled just for one name. "Nath."

"He has?"

"We went to art exhibitions together a few times. I wore dresses to those. Not that one, I don't think, but yeah."

Marinette sighed dreamily. "You two are so adorable together. But okay, I've decided."

"Decided what?"

"What we're doing."

Alix bit her lip, holding back a smile. "And what is that?"

"Girl talk."

"Oh my god."

"No, seriously! And I absolutely _have_ to see you in this dress."

"Oh, no. My friend is a Plastic."

"This isn't Mean Girls, Alix. But as a designer, I cannot abide by this beautiful dress sitting here not being worn."

Alix rolled her eyes, standing. "Fine. But it's one or the other. I'm not sitting here in the dress. I can't sit cross-legged that way."

"Or one, _then_ the other?"

"Grudgingly, I agree to your terms. Give me the dress."

When she had the dress in her hands, and Marinette was excitedly watching her, she realized the flaw in her plan. "Ah… well…" She muttered, her face heating up. _Oh my god, why is this happening right now? I can't change in front of her? I mean, I guess I could, but… where's Nath when you need him?_

"Oh! Sorry!" Marinette went a little red herself. "I'll uh, turn around?"

Alix nodded, closing her eyes. _Kill me._ Once Marinette had turned around, Alix quickly stripped and slipped into the dress. "Alright. You can turn around again." She said, running a hand through her hair. _You weren't embarrassed when Nath first saw you in a dress. Of course, he wasn't in the same room when you changed, so I guess it's not quite the same thing. Eyes up._ She forced her gaze back up from the floor, refusing to look as embarrassed as she felt.

Mostly, she didn't want to give Marinette the impression that she was embarrassed in dresses. She wasn't. She enjoyed dressing up as much as the next girl, and just because her standard ensemble was athletic shorts and tank tops (not including her spandex undershirt), didn't mean she only wore boys' clothes. _Though, I'm like one-hundred percent more likely to find boys' clothes with actual working pockets._

"Wow…" Marinette breathed. "You look so beautiful in that!"

"You think so?" She looked down at the dress.

"Definitely!"

"You're allowed two pictures, including selfies."

Marinette responded to Alix's wry smirk with one of her own. "Fine. One so that I can preserve this picture for forever." She pulled out her phone and snapped a picture of Alix. And then she threw an arm over Alix's shoulders, holding her phone out. "And one selfie. Now, girl talk."

"Alright, what, exactly, do you want to talk about?"

Marinette turned around again so that Alix could change. "Uh, Nathanaël. Duh. Be honest, are you two dating?"

Alix wasn't sure whether to be terrified, nauseous, or amused that her crush assumed that she was dating her best friend, who also happened to be another person who had a crush on her. She settled for amused, and burst out laughing.

"W-what? I'm being serious!"

"Pfft, haha, so am I, girl."

Alix smiled, seeing the pigtails on Marinette's head sway as she started to look over but stopped herself. "It was a legitimate question! You two are practically made for each other."

"Okay, honestly?"

"Honestly."

"Nath is probably the best thing to ever happen to me, but no, we're not dating and we never will be."

"What? Really?" Alix tapped her shoulder, telling her she could turn around. She sat on the bed while Alix hung her dress back in the closet. "Why not?"

"Oh, lots of reasons. Mostly just that neither of us are interested in each other romantically. I actually asked him if he wanted to date one time."

"You did not!"

"I did. He said no, I said good. That was the end of it."

"Oh man, I hope he wasn't just lying."

"Trust me. He wasn't lying. He has a crush anyway. Not me."

Marinette went wide-eyed and bit her lip. "Oh. Right."

Alix rolled her eyes. "Not you, either. Past that, I'll say no more."

"Okay, but what about you?"

"What about _you_?"

Marinette got that starry-eyed look again. Alix just shook her head and joined her on the bed. "Well… I mean…" Her face flared red. "There's Adrien."

"You don't say."

Marinette gasped. "You knew?!"

"Duh. I'm pretty sure everyone knows."

"Oh, no. Even him?"

Alix bit her tongue. It would have been so easy to just say yes. She was pretty sure he did know, anyway, but she couldn't do that to Marinette. _She'd be devastated, because if he knows and doesn't say anything, then that's basically just saying he's not interested._ "Couldn't say. How long has that been a thing, anyway?"

"Since his first day."

"Seriously? You got crush that huge the day you met him?" Alix arched her brow. "No offence but, what?"

"I know! But he was just so sweet."

"No one else is that sweet?"

"Well, Alya is sweet too, but…" She bit her lip. _I swear to god if you say she's a girl I am going to scream._ "She's my best friend. I can't imagine that being anything else, honestly."

 _Thank the lord._ "Same with Nath." _Plus, I'm kind of gay._ _Actually, screw it._ "I mean, that and I'm gay."

Marinette laughed. "That is a very good reason." _That is a very good reaction._ "But okay, I admitted. Your turn. Do you have a crush?"

"You tell me."

"You're not as obvious as I am. You're going to have to admit it."

"Hmm… yeah."

"Oooh, who is it?"

"Ah-ah, that is strictly confidential."

"I bet I can guess!"

"I bet you can't."

Marinette stuck out her tongue in concentration as she stared at Alix's face. "Is it Sabrina?"

Alix snorted. "Uh, no."

"Okay, I'm out of guesses. Who is it?"

"I'd rather not say."

Marinette sighed, and then flicked her gaze around the room again. "Okay. So why is your bookcase covered in sticky notes?"

"Huh? Oh, that. It's sort of… a kind of diary, I suppose."

"Really? I'm sorry I just started reading it."

Alix chuckled. "Don't worry. You can read it. It started as, like, reminders. 'Remember the party at eight' kind of thing. And then I started writing down other important things, and it grew."

Marinette moved back to the bookcase, reading the notes again. "Are these color coded?"

"Yeah. Yellow is for the books, they're organized by subject. Orange is events, Blue is reminders, pink is personal, green is motivational."

Marinette was quiet for a long time as she read them. Her brow furrowed and her smile fell. "Two questions, if you don't mind my asking."

"Shoot."

"First, why is the one about otters killing alligators green? What's motivational about that?"

"Well," Aliz laughed. "If an otter can take down a gator, think about what you can do. My problems often seem less like problems after I imagine wrestling a gator as big as I am."

Marinette giggled. "Okay, fair point. Second question. I noticed that a lot of these… or at least a lot of the pink ones…"

"Seem like I'm having a really hard time?"

"…Y-yeah."

Alix sighed. "It's not a big deal." _Let yourself be vulnerable._ "I mean…" _Is this a proper moment for this? What was the criteria? She's… shit. Think about what Nath said._ She had a hard time summoning the words. Suddenly, it was hard to look at Marinette again, so Alix closed her eyes instead. "I mean, I guess that's not exactly accurate."

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing. Not anymore. Or, it doesn't interfere anymore. My life is fine. I keep the reminders there because… It's nice to be reminded sometimes. I'm better than I was, but I need it sometimes."

"Alix?" She felt an arm around her shoulders, pulling her close. "You can talk to me. It's okay."

 _What do I say? How do I explain this to someone who didn't feel it?_ She tried over and over again to summon words, but everything died in her throat. _Sometimes the best plan is to not have one. Fine._

"You've never been akumatized." She said. "It's not a very pleasant thing. I woke up one day after murdering half my friends to see them all casually going back to class."

"Oh. I'm so sorry, I didn't realize."

"Don't even try to feel guilty. That part of my life is over. And I got Nath for having gone through it." She hugged her knees to her chest. "For a long time after I was akumatized, I couldn't handle crowds. I still get uncomfortable actually, but Nath is always there for me when I need him. I couldn't look people in the eyes. I'd freeze – forget what I was supposed to say or do – sometimes panic completely. It was especially bad with the people I killed. I couldn't even look at them for a while. And touching was just… it felt like one touch and people would start fading again. Nothing really interested me. Roller-blading was nearly as bad as touching people and all of my other hobbies kind of lost their spark."

"That sounds horrible."

"It was. It was a process to heal from that. An ongoing process. But I've come a long way. I'm actually kind of proud of the person I am now. Is that weird?"

"I don't think so. I'm proud of you, too."

Alix smiled. "But, yeah. A lot of those pink ones that sound like that are things Nath has said to me. Things I didn't want to forget because they helped."

"Why pink? It seems like they should be green. Motivational, right?"

Alix just furrowed her brow and looked at Marinette quizzically. "Because Nath said them. They're personal."

"You have a lot of thoughts about our classmates in pink, too."

"What else would they be?"

Marinette smiled brilliantly at her.

* * *

"Yeah, I don't even know what happened."

Nathanaël practically bounced on his stool. "But you told her about the akumatization thing?"

"Yeah. And I told her I'm gay."

"Good god." Nathanaël said it in such a deadpan way that Alix knew he was being sarcastic, but she ignored it anyway.

"My thoughts exactly. Everything went so spectacularly off-script and I don't even know if I can call it a successful evening."

Nathanaël hummed as he sorted some paint bottles. "Regardless. I'm proud of you. You took a risk!"

"I took like five risks and then chucked myself off the cliff."

"It's not that bad."

"Nath. I have absolutely no clue whether she even likes me right now. What if it was too soon? If I weirded her out? That's why I should have waited and just followed the plan!"

"Alix, calm down. She's not weirded out. You let your guard down. That's a good thing!"

"That has never been a good thing!"

Nathanaël waved his arms to indicate himself. "Exhibit A."

"Stop being right; I'm trying to freak out."

"Just relax." Nathanaël laughed. "You'll be fine."

"Okay, well then since you are obviously much better at emotions than me."

"Thank you for noticing."

"Why don't you tell me the situation?"

Nathanaël shook his head. "Look. This was last night, right?"

"Yeah."

"And that means it has been a total of…"

"Thirteen hours, give or take."

"With…"

"Ten hours of sleep."

"Exactly. You do remember that this is the weekend, right? We're the only ones that get up this early in the morning and, like, actually do things. And Marinette is regularly late to class, which implies she probably sleeps late when she can."

Alix sighed. "Point."

"So, don't be freaking out just because your girlfriend hasn't texted you."

Alix chucked a water bottle at him.


	3. Chapter 3

"So, tell me again when you're going to ask her out." Nathanaël caught up to Alix in the hallway, looked at her sideways and hand his hand up.

She took his hand in her own, rolling her eyes. "I don't know. I didn't create the criteria because _someone_ told me not to."

"Good." He said. "Use your gut."

Alix squeezed his hand tightly. "My gut tells me I'm terrified. I don't have a plan, or a backup plan, I don't have guidelines. How do people even do this? I have no idea what's going on!"

"I'll tell you a secret, okay?" He leaned close to her ear. "Neither does anyone else. Just trust me."

"I do trust you. It's myself that I don't trust."

"I know how hard it can be to believe sometimes, but you're more capable than you think. I really do think you can do this."

"I know." Alix sighed. "That's why I'm trying."

"It'll be fine." Nathanaël squeezed her hand that time. "You don't need a plan to sweep her off her feet. You do that just by being awesome."

"Oh, shush." Alix laughed, hitting him lightly on the shoulder.

Nathanaël chuckled and then cut himself off with a cough. "Heads up. Crush at three o' clock."

"Mine or yours?"

Nathanaël ruffled her hair vigorously. "Yours."

"Hey!"

"Hey guys!" Marinette came up to them as Alix attempted to fix her hair.

"Morning, Marinette." Nathanaël said, letting go of Alix's hand to redo her sort-of-ponytail for her.

"Hey, Marinette. Thanks Nath."

"My fault, anyway."

"How's your morning?" Marinette asked.

"Always better with my buds."

Marinette sighed. "Yeah. I'm glad you're here. Alya and the boys are all busy this morning."

Nathanaël's hands stilled. Alix looked back at his pensive gaze, then his mischievous smirk. "Nath…"

She said it as a warning, but he ignored her. "Yeah," he said, "actually, I need to get to the art room. I wanted to work on my project a little before school started."

Alix smiled, knowing he could see the second warning in her eyes. "Do you need me there to model?"

Nathanaël bit his lip. "I'm far enough that I don't need you modelling anymore. Don't worry. Just hang with Marinette." _Traitor._

Marinette was a bit wide-eyed at Nathanaël's sudden behavior, but said goodbye to him regardless before he took off. _Okay, then. Wing it. Improv._ Marinette sighed, watching Nathanaël's back. "You two really are close, huh? I'm kind of jealous."

Alix rubbed her palms on her shorts. "Jealous? Why?"

"Nothing." Marinette shook her head.

Alix frowned, examining her. _Well, it's obviously not nothing._ "Hey." She said, putting a hand on Marinette's shoulder. "You can tell me."

Marinette worried her lip. "Do you have any secrets from him?"

Alix opened her mouth to answer but cut herself short. _Do I? I don't think I do. Not from him. Marinette either, actually._ "Not that I can think of."

She sighed. "I didn't think so. I have a secret. I can't tell you. Or Alya."

"I think I understand." _If you're keeping a secret, you'll never have that kind of relationship. Or she doesn't think so, anyway._ "Secrets aren't a bad thing, though."

"They can be."

"Can be, sure. But they're not always bad. There are good secrets. Is yours bad?"

Marinette furrowed her brow. "I wouldn't say that."

"Then I wouldn't worry." Alix started walking, Marinette at her side. "Try to imagine that your secret is Alya's. Would you understand why she kept it a secret?"

"Definitely."

"Then she will too, most likely. And everyone else." Alix shrugged. "You guys know each other well enough that even if they didn't understand, they'd understand why you thought it was necessary. But that's off topic, isn't it? That's in the case of them finding out. In the meanwhile, a secret shouldn't make you feel off from your friends. I don't have any secrets from Nath, but that doesn't mean I haven't had any."

"Really?"

"Well, I couldn't get away with it anymore, honestly. We're basically telepathic at this point. But yeah. You know why it didn't stop us from getting closer?"

"Why?"

"Because I didn't worry about it. Sure, I kept my mouth shut, avoided the topic when I could, but I knew even then that even though I didn't _want_ him to know, if he did find out, we'd still be good."

Marinette was quiet for a while. "He eventually found out?"

Alix chuckled. "I told him."

"Really? He took it well?"

"You bet. As I said, he understood why I didn't tell him until then."

"If you don't mind my asking, what was the secret?"

Alix bit back a laugh, looking up at the lights. "You know? I honestly don't remember. It seemed like a big deal at the time, but now…" She shrugged. "Might've been being gay. Not sure."

"You know, I think it's impressive how casually you tell people that."

"What? That I'm gay?"

"Yeah. I've only told Alya that I'm bi."

Alix smiled. _Nice._ "I don't know, that was a pretty casual coming out yourself." Marinette flushed a deep red. Alix chuckled. "And I don't know how casual I am. You and Nath are the only ones who know."

"Wait, really?"

Alix hummed an affirmative, and then shrugged. "Not that I'm hiding it or anything. It just never seemed important to mention."

"The class did think you had a crush on Kim before."

Alix snorted. "Of course they did. Well, I never paid much attention to that. It doesn't bother me. Nath and you were the only people it seemed important to tell."

"Me?"

She smirked, shrugging. "Yeah. I like you." _Wait. Shit. Thank god that'll be interpreted as platonic._ She bit her lip. _But what if it isn't? If she guesses? She probably wouldn't say anything now, but that's kind of a huge hint. And you have been flirting with her on the down-low. She could put two and two together and realize that that wasn't just playing around. I'm surprised she didn't start doubting after I told her I'm gay, honestly._

 _Then again, I forget sometimes that while I may be glaringly obvious to Nath, not everyone will see it. I may be better about it than I think. Doubt it, though._

"Aw, I like you too!" _Am I allowed to read into that?_ Marinette grabbed onto her arm as they walked. _That's… definitely a step past where we were. I'll mark that as "progress" and hope it's in the right direction._ _Hard to tell. Her cheeks are red, but that's not indicative. Posture is kind of tense, I can feel it in her grip and in her stride. That could be nervousness, but it'd be irresponsible of me to assume such, or why she would be nervous in the first place. There's also the fact that I'm pretty sure neither of us is actually walking anywhere. We're just wandering around the school. But, again, she could just be following me, probably is, even, especially since I started walking first._

 _Maybe I should just… try not to think about it._

 _I can't stop thinking about it._

 _I mean sure, nothing necessarily indicates reciprocal emotions, but nothing disproves the possibility either. It's just… there's behaviors that could be attributed to her feeling what I am, but those same behaviors could be caused by different stimuli, so how many behaviors need to be exhibited before I can assume that she likes me?_

 _Why can't there be t-tests for emotions?_

 _Stupid, unquantifiable, troub-_

"Oh, look at the time!" Marinette exclaimed. "We should start heading to class!"

"Right. Of course." Alix bit her lip, smiling. "Class."

When they got to the classroom, Alix immediately turned her gaze to Nathanaël. She shot him her best "Oh my god, please literally kill me" look. He snickered and gave her a thumbs-up. _You are the actual worst._

Marinette split from her to take her seat and chat animatedly with her group while Alix rolled her eyes at Nathanaël and silently made her way to her own seat. She sat down roughly. _This is why we need plans. I can't believe that entire conversation was actually a thing that happened._

* * *

AA – alix what did you say to marinette?  
AK – Only dumb things.  
AA – :/  
AA – I don't believe that.  
AK – What makes you think I said something to her?  
AA – well…  
AA – I know she went to your place over the weekend  
AA – and you were hanging with her this morning  
AA – you came into class together (with her on your arm!) so I know.  
AK – Granted. But what makes you think I said anything?  
AK – As in, what did she do that you're blaming me for?  
AA – oh.  
AA – mostly she talked to me.  
AA – but like, without the weirdness.  
AA – yeah she's been doing that less but it's almost like I'm nino.  
AA – it's great but also weird and I wanna know how you made her so comfortable with me.  
AA – and why.  
AK – I have only selfish intentions, I assure you.  
AA – well thanks anyway, then.  
AK – But seriously dude idk.  
AK – We had a few heart to heart conversations but I don't know off the top of my head what could cause that.  
AK – Are you sure this isn't just, like, natural?  
AA – relatively.  
AA – she WAS getting better but this is like a jump for no real reason.  
AA – she hugged me today.  
AA – like just as a goodbye not because I did something stupid or got unlucky or anything.  
AK – In that case, I understand your skepticism.  
AA – she's also been talking about you.  
AK – What, really?  
AA – yeah.  
AK – Like what?  
AA – I'm a little surprised you care.  
AK – Wow /3  
AA – sorry! only meant I got the impression you don't really care what people think about you.  
AK – I don't.  
AK – But I happen to care in this instance for reasons.  
AA – fair enough. it was only positive stuff I swear.  
AA – I am curious though about one thing.  
AK – One?  
AA – okay more than one but one major thing for the moment.  
AK – What is it?  
AA – is the reason nath looked so proud of himself the same reason you gave him that death glare  
AK – Yes.  
AA – follow up question.  
AK – Shoot.  
AA – did that exchange have something to do with him suddenly needing to work on his project before school?  
AK – You're way more observant than I give you credit for.  
AA – thank.  
AA – I think.  
AA – is that a yes?  
AK – Sure.  
AA – last follow up question.  
AK – *rolling my eyes*  
AA – okay I know this is a long shot  
AA – but I have to ask  
AA – because I don't know what else to do with basically anything that happened this morning  
AA – and I know it's none of my business  
AA – and stuff  
AA – but was all that with nath because you have a crush on marinette?  
AK – I don't feel it's necessary to answer that question.  
AA – okay.  
AA – but just so you know  
AA – that'd be so awesome if you did.  
AA – because you know, you're cool and stuff.  
AA – and also I'd be happy for marinette if she got a girlfriend  
AA – and you of course  
AA – but mari especially because I'm pretty sure she had a crush on me  
AA – and that's like  
AK – Adrien.  
AA – ?  
AK – Shut up.  
AA – sorry.  
AK – Just saying.  
AK – That would be a very awkward monologue if I didn't actually have a crush on her, buddy.  
AA – wait so you do like her?  
AK – Did I stutter?  
AA – omg this is great!  
AK – How?  
AA – because you two will be girlfriends and cute and  
AA – sorry I'm just really excited.  
AA – you guys will be my first friends to bet romantic.  
AK – "bet romantic"  
AA – GET sorry  
AK – "get romantic"  
AA – you know what I mean!  
AK – Why are you so excited?  
AA – because you two will be happy together and you'll hang with us all more and be cute and just  
AA – I am, okay?  
AK – You don't even know if she likes me.  
AK – Or girls.  
AA – okay yeah.  
AA – but I think it's a definite possibility!  
AK – "there's definitely a probability of that"  
AA – well when you say it that way :c  
AA – I'm just saying that hope is not lost!  
AA – I'll help!  
AK – No offence but like  
AK – Rabid fangirls aside do you have any experience with crushes or relationships?  
AA – no…  
AA – well I did have a crush once but that didn't go anywhere.  
AK – You did?  
AA – not gonna say who it is  
AA – confidential.  
AK – Fair enough.  
AK – I am curious though about one thing.  
AA – one?  
AK – That's enough of reiterating that part of the conversation.  
AK – Was your crush a guy or girl? ;)  
AA – you're asking if I'm gay?  
AK – Lol yep.  
AA – well the crush was a girl.  
AK – That "well" implies more to that statement.  
AK – You don't have to say if you don't want to obviously.  
AA – no it's fine!  
AA – I do like boys too.  
AA – I just don't want to make a deal out of it  
AA – in case my dad has something to say about it.  
AK – While I doubt an aristocratic fashion designer is going to have significant issues with you liking boys,  
AK – That is an entirely fair and sensible position.  
AA – well when you say it like that!  
AK – Lol seriously though I understand where you're coming from.  
AK – Thanks for telling me. 33333333  
AA – aw, of course! 333  
AK – I'm pretty sure with you makes like  
AK – Over half of our class queer in some capacity.  
AA – no way.  
AK – Well, you, me, Nath, Rose, and Jules.  
AK – That's five. Only need two more to make half.  
AA – nino's ace.  
AK – One more.  
AA – hopefully mari? ;3  
AK – IF I'M LUCKY.  
AA – nath is queer?  
AK – Yeah he likes boys, too.  
AA – I didn't know that.  
AK – He's kinda like me he doesn't hide it or really care but he's not telling everyone.  
AK – He won't mind that I told you.  
AK – But I wouldn't let it spread to his folks.  
AA – oh no are they not okay with it?  
AK – I mean they know. But his dad and bro aren't fans.  
AK – His mom is the actual coolest though so there's that.  
AA – oh okay, at least he has her. and you. :P  
AK – Naturally.  
AA – do you think mylène and ivan are our class' token straight couple?  
AK – Adrien omg.  
AK – Yes, but also dude.  
AA – it was just a thought!  
AK – does that mean you plan to date a boy?  
AA – atm I have no plans.  
AA – none at all.  
AA – though a boyfriend does sound GREAT.  
AK – How many boys do you know who like boys?  
AA – nath apparently.  
AA – me.  
AA – pretty sure jean and sebastian but I'm also pretty sure they're dating so not exactly options.  
AA – tbh though I've seen nath with his hair up I hardly need other options.  
AK – 100% telling him you said that.  
AA – wait no please.  
AA – I'm literally blushing right now and you haven't even told him. I would actually die.  
AA – …  
AA – did you already tell him?  
AK – No, I didn't tell him.  
AA – thank god.  
AK – Yet.  
AA – alix please.  
AK – I'll let you off.  
AA – THANK YOU.  
AK – This time.  
AK – But know that that is screenshotted.  
AA – oh dear.  
AK – What kind of best friend would I be  
AK – If I didn't tell him when the second most attractive boy in class says something like that?  
AA – second?  
AK – Nath, duh.  
AA – I accept that.  
AK – Lol, screenshotted.  
AA – shit.  
AK – *gasp*  
AA – please, I am a teenager too I can curse.  
AK – Can you, though?  
AA – … not in front of dad.  
AK – Neither can anyone else dude you're right.  
AA – maybe we should just continue this conversation in person  
AA – where my words cannot be used as blACKMAIL.  
AK – Idk I'm good.  
AA – but like  
AA – scrolling up  
AA – a lot  
AA – I'll help with mari!  
AK – How?  
AA – to be honest I can totally believe that she already likes you.  
AA – but at the very least I'll subtly give her some nudges.  
AK – "subtly"  
AA – do you doubt me?  
AK – Pretty much.  
AA – /3  
AA – trust me it'll be good if you have a wingman.  
AK – Okay.  
AA – really?!  
AK – Only because I don't have a plan.  
AA – I'm going to ignore that and pretend that you just really trust me.  
AK – Lol that too. 3  
AA – 33333333333333333333333333  
AK – Great now chill out to like 4 hearts and do your homework.  
AK – You can be the Ultimate Wingman tomorrow.  
AA – okay!  
AA – bye alix! 3333  
AK – Later, bud. 3

* * *

"Wait, wait, Adrien wants to be your wingman?" Nathanaël held back his laughter as he cleaned up his workstation.

"Yep." Alix said. She sat on one of the empty tables, swinging her feet in the air. "He's weirdly excited about it."

"And you said he could?"

"You're the one who told me not to plan. This way, the planning is out of my control. And if he makes it too obvious… at least he's expediting matters."

"Oh my god."

"Listen, if you have a better idea…"

"Nope." Nathanaël snickered. "Nope. This is better than I could have hoped for."

The door opened before Alix could respond, and Adrien himself walked in. "Hey Alix! Nath!"

Alix exchanged a glance with Nathanaël, noticing him put down his paints and pick up his brush instead. "Morning, Adrien." He said, before walking off to the sink to clean the brush.

"How are you this morning, buddy?" Alix asked.

"Very good, thank you." Adrien grinned. "I've been talking to Marinette."

Alix raised an eyebrow. "Have you, now?"

"Mhmm. I think you should ask her out."

"Is this the expert opinion of Adrien, the ultimate wingman, or Adrien, the overexcited puppy?"

She received a full blast of Adrien's best puppy eyes. "It can't be both?"

"No."

He rolled his eyes. "Wingman, then."

"Ooh, you're confident."

Nathanaël came back, putting his brush away and picking up his paints again. "Confident in what?"

"He thinks I should ask Marinette out."

Nathanaël turned again, finding the right cabinet. "I agree, actually."

"Really?"

"Why not? Is there any reason to wait?"

Alix's gaze fell to the tile. _Is there? I could say that I don't know with enough certainty that it'll end well, but am I likely to get much more evidence than I have? Adrien thinks I should, and he's part of that group more than I am so he has the insider scoop. Nath is better with feelings than I am, and he thinks I should. The only problem is this whole "no plan" thing freaking me out._ "I guess not."

Adrien let out a little cheer. "Yes! I can't wait. I'm sure she'll say yes!"

Alix looked up to see his hands gripping the table by his side as he sat next to her. "If you're so excited, you can help me come up with a date to invite her to."

"I would be honored." Alix wanted to laugh because the awe in his voice told her he actually was.

"Ideas? Nath, feel free to pitch in."

Adrien moved his hands, crossing them in front of himself. "Hmm," he said, "maybe a traditional movie and dinner?" Alix made a face, at which both boys laughed. "Okay, you're obviously not basic enough for that." He rolled his eyes. "Do something touristy, then."

Nathanaël chuckled. "Or do something personal."

"That." Adrien said. "That's a great idea. What would work?"

Alix saw Adrien shift towards her, but she turned her gaze to Nathanaël. He hummed. "Ice skating might be worth trying."

"Ice skating?" Adrien frowned. "Like when we all first started hanging out?"

Alix snickered. "I've only told Marinette, out of you guys, but it's a bit more important than that."

"Really?"

She nodded. "Yeah. It was one of the things I used to help recover from the akumatization thing."

"Oh. That is…"

"Very personal." Nathanaël offered.

"Yeah."

"And she knows. It just might be a good idea."

"Plus, unlike a movie, you'd have lots of time to talk." Adrien concluded with a snap of his fingers. "It's perfect."

Alix chuckled. "Yeah, I hope so."

"I know so. When are you going to ask her?"

Alix watched Nathanaël finish putting away all his supplies and take his seat in the chair. "No clue." She said. "Whenever I can get her alone, I guess."

"We can help with that!" Adrien immediately said. "I mean, we can make up something, but if you don't mind them knowing we could just tell Nino and Alya and you can get her at lunch."

"I don't mind. They'll find out soon enough, anyway."

"Well, then," Nathanaël said. "Now that that's settled, shall we get to class?"

Adrien enthusiastically agreed and hopped off the table to lead the way to the door.

Alix was slower to stand, and when she had, Nathanaël stopped next to her instead of following Adrien. "Hey." She felt the edge of his finger touch her chin, too gentle to lift her head, but with that clear intent. It vanished before she looked up to meet his gaze. "Eyes up."

Alix smiled, following him and Adrien to their classroom, attempting to prepare herself for what was going to happen in just a few hours.

Unfortunately, as the time passed, she felt no more prepared. In fact, she felt less so, with the ever-present knowledge that her "plan" is essentially to just wing it. _It hasn't served me wrong thus far. Still._

 _Just channel you before the akumatization. Would you have gotten this nervous about it back then? Probably not, but I was a lot different back then. Nath's influence, no doubt. For instance, I would have a detailed plan for this entire day._

 _And it's not as bad as you're imagining it. Yeah, you don't have the kind of plan you're used to, but that didn't stop planning entirely. Nath and Adrien are going to get rid of Nino and Alya, and you'll swoop in to ask Marinette ice skating. All the basics are covered._ Alix took a deep breath, comforted by that plan, however weak. _It'll go off without a hitch. I just need to be brave enough to ask her._

 _Funny how for another Alix, this wouldn't even almost be an issue. But I think I can do it. I've been getting closer to that place. It shouldn't be impossible._

The day seemed to drag on, something Alix wasn't going to complain about. But inevitably, they were released for their lunch break.

Adrien said something to the three next to him, rubbing the back of his neck, before exiting the classroom alone. Alya and Nino told Marinette something as well, but looked up straight at Alix and winked at her before leaving the room. Nathanaël just glanced her way as he made his way towards the door, shaking his head at the other three's behavior.

The rest of the classroom filed out. Alix waited for Marinette and walked with her to the courtyard. "So," Marinette said. "Looks like everyone ditched us."

Alix chuckled. _Pretty much the exact opposite._ "Looks like it."

"Where did you want to eat?"

Alix wrung one of her backpack straps. "To be honest, you should probably get Alya's input on that."

Marinette furrowed her brow. "Alya said she was busy."

"She lied." Alix took a deep breath. "They were giving me an opportunity to talk to you alone."

"Really?" Marinette's eyes went wide. "Why?"

"Because…" Alix stared at Marinette's blue irises and froze.

"Alix?" _Shit._ "It's okay. What did you want to talk about?"

She shook her head roughly. "Sorry." Rather than repeat that again, Alix trained her eyes on Marinette's little pink purse. _How does she fit everything in there?_ "I wanted to ask, uh, if you wanted to come ice skating with me?"

Marinette was quiet for a while. "Sure! I'd love to."

Alix bit her lip. "But, uh… Like… as a date."

"As a… really? You want…"

Alix refused to back down, so she just nodded and kept her eyes fixated on the purse.

Marinette made a few more surprised, incomprehensible noises, through which Alix waited patiently. She had made herself clear, there was no misunderstanding, so, since she couldn't change what had already been said, there was no sense worrying about it.

Not that that philosophy stopped her from worrying about it. It did keep her calm, though.

"Yeah. I'll go on a date with you."

Alix's eyes snapped up to meet Marinette's earnest gaze. She recoiled a little, subconsciously. "Really?"

"Yes, really." Marinette giggled. "Of course I will."

"That's… that's great! Thank you!"

Alix stepped closer, and Marinette opened her arms. Alix wrapped her own arms around Marinette's torso and squeezed. "You won't regret it."

"I'm… regretting this… hug!" Marinette wheezed.

"Sorry!" Alix let her go, jumping back as if electrified.

Marinette's lilting laugh leached all of the guilt and doubt from Alix's chest, replacing it with the same light, amused, happiness that Marinette was showing.

"You said the others are still coming to lunch with us?"

"Oh! Right. Let me text them."

Marinette continued giggling as Alix took out her phone. She opened up a conversation with both Nathanaël and Adrien, and tore her eyes away from Marinette only long enough to send a short message, the meaning of which would be obvious to both boys.

AK – 3


End file.
